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President Julius Maada Bio gained re-election within the West African nation of Sierra Leone on Tuesday, a consequence rejected by his primary opponent and questioned by some observers who cited a scarcity of transparency within the vote tallying.
Mr. Bio took 56 % of the vote, based on the nation’s electoral fee, simply clearing the brink of 55 % required to keep away from the runoff that almost all analysts had predicted. Samura Kamara, the main opposition candidate, completed second with 41 % of the vote.
Mr. Bio was rapidly sworn in — simply an hour after the official outcomes had been introduced. His supporters thronged the streets of Freetown, the capital, carrying inexperienced T-shirts, his celebration’s shade, and chanting his title.
Mr. Kamara, in a tweet, known as the outcomes “NOT credible” and “a frontal assault on our fledgling democracy,” however didn’t say how he would possibly reply.
The election, held on Saturday, was a rematch of the 2018 contest, wherein Mr. Bio defeated Mr. Kamara, an economist and former authorities minister, by a decent margin.
However Sierra Leone finds itself in a extra dire state of affairs than 5 years in the past, grappling with document ranges of inflation and unemployment and a number of the highest ranges of meals insecurity in West Africa.
Mr. Bio, 59, known as on Sierra Leoneans to provide him 5 extra years to pursue an schooling initiative that has despatched an extra a million kids to high school. However he has additionally been accused of overseeing violent repression of protests, together with final summer time when greater than two dozen folks died in demonstrations in opposition to rising costs.
Mr. Bio is a former army officer who took half in two coups throughout Sierra Leone’s civil struggle within the Nineteen Nineties. He briefly dominated the nation in 1996 as the top of a army junta, however handed energy to an elected president months later.
Claiming victory on Tuesday, Mr. Bio wrote on Twitter: “Although our tongues, tribes and political persuasions would possibly differ, we’re united in our need to see the land that we love, Sierra Leone, prosper.”
Voter turnout seemed to be excessive at round 77 %, based on the electoral fee. Over 3.3 million voters had registered to vote within the nation of 8.4 million, most of them underneath age 35.
“Participation is often very excessive as a result of younger folks need change,” mentioned Ishmael Beah, a Sierra Leonean author who’s crucial of Mr. Bio’s authorities. “That’s, till they notice that nothing goes to vary.”
The voting on Saturday was largely peaceable, however tensions rose on Sunday when safety forces surrounded the headquarters of Mr. Kamara’s celebration, the All Individuals’s Congress, as supporters had been celebrating native outcomes. (The vote on Saturday was additionally for native and parliamentary officers.)
The police fired tear fuel and a girl was shot lifeless. Social gathering officers have accused safety forces of firing dwell rounds, which the top of the Sierra Leonean police has denied.
On Monday, each Mr. Kamara’s and Mr. Bio’s events had predicted a victory, elevating fears of additional tensions when the ultimate outcomes had been launched. As of Tuesday night, most of Sierra Leone remained calm.
However worldwide election observers have voiced considerations concerning the lack of transparency throughout the counting course of.
Nationwide Election Watch, an impartial monitoring physique, had mentioned earlier on Tuesday that no candidate would win 55 % of the vote within the first spherical, primarily based on the info it had collected and which it mentioned matched provisional outcomes launched by the nation’s electoral fee on Monday.
Based on the official outcomes, nevertheless, greater than 1.56 million folks voted for Mr. Bio — barely above the 55 % threshold.
Election observers from the Carter Heart famous a number of voting irregularities, together with damaged seals and open poll bins that ought to have been closed, mentioned Cameron R. Hume, a former U.S. ambassador and the top of the middle’s statement mission.
“The voting went fairly nicely — folks confirmed up, they wished to vote they usually wished their voice to be heard,” Mr. Hume mentioned in a phone interview from Freetown.
However that couldn’t be mentioned of the depend of ballots, Mr. Hume added. “There’s loads of questions left on the desk.”
Joseph Johnson contributed reporting from Freetown, Sierra Leone.
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